What Is Going On With My Tank?

[Fluval-1200]

Having a major headache with my planted tank.Il give the stats and kit before I get into the problem
 
60" x 20" x 20" 375litre
2x 54w t5ho bulbs, 8hr per day
Fluval fx5 with spray bar over the whole length of tank, very good flow all over.
Pool filter sand, pleco digs so cant use anything that needs capping
2kg F-e co2 setup, drop checker is almost yellow.
I have the dry ferts kit and use the standard mix, macro and micro
I have lots of vallis, crypto, amazon swords and some other fast growing stem plants.
 
No matter what combo/regime I use with the ferts or co2 I have bad growth + algea.
If the co2 gets turnt down a tad, it all dies.
If I cut ferts down it all dies.
 
If I do the standard dosing, 3micro 3 macro per week I have bad water quality?
Ive been adjusting it gradually over months and been leaving it for weeks after each adjustment to see if it will sort itself out.
 
What do I need to do here? its moderately planted atm as im not wasting anymore money on plants that will just die.
 
 
 
 

 

[SO19Firearms]

No matter what combo/regime I use with the ferts or co2 I have bad growth + algea.
If the co2 gets turnt down a tad, it all dies.
If I cut ferts down it all dies

That shows your lighting is too high - Or too high for your situation at least. Probably better to reduce your lighting so that the ferts and CO2 are less of a limiting factor.
 
Bad growth could be because of the above - plants grow fast because of the light >> deplete food/CO2 >> Die = Bad growth
 

If I do the standard dosing, 3micro 3 macro per week I have bad water quality?

 
I'm not sure what you mean by bad water quality - Unless you're using a particularly expert mix you shouldn't be having any ammonia issues although if you're using low quality supplies you may get cloudy water.
 
 
Obviously I haven't checked your flow and you may have but on the surface of it you say you have a full length spray bar but "Good flow all over" - you don't say howmany inlets to the filter you have tho - 2? 4?
I'm not saying it's/you're wrong, but I don't equate a spray bar to good flow straight off.
 
 
Some stuff to think about IMO

 

[Fluval-1200]

I had a little brain wave and chat with someone in the chatroom yesterday, I have a high tech setup with low tech lighting. My water ends up high nitrate and sometimes I have ammonia spikes, I only get this from adding the ferts?
 
The thing is getting lights for this tank is not easy though lol.
 
Spraybar is reasonably powerful, but only 1 inlet.

 

[SO19Firearms]

Obviously the Nitrate is nothing to worry about but the ammonia is. There shouldn't be any. I'd guess you have too much light rather than not enough too, but that's me.

 

[Fluval-1200]

Well, big tank clean today as had masses of algea (staghorn mainly) Thought id lower my lights from 8 hours to around 6-7, weirdly my timer was set to 10hours of light and must of been like this for a long time.
 
Adjusted to 8 hours and hopefully seen some changes in my tank over next couple of weeks. Was ready to throw in the towel but I dont think I will now lol.